Roman's Movie Reviews and Musings

Sunday, May 20, 2018

Going a bit classic with the anime juke box today. Heading back to 1987 and the original animated video series Bubblegum Crisis. While there is a crisis in the series, it has nothing to do with bubblegum. It has everything to do with rogue androids and hot women in power suits blowing them up. I've already featured one song from this fun series a few years ago, but there are so many awesome 1980s rock songs in this series that I have to share another.

This is the song that starts off the series. The band Priss and the Replicants (fun nod to Bladerunner - one of many!) are rocking out on stage. The performance is intercut with the destruction one of the androids is unleashing on Tokyo. The style of the song (and the performance sequence) is borrowed from Streets of Fire, and I think it actually makes this even better. It's a great way to start off the series, and the song is pretty darn catchy (with lots and lots of english thrown in there for good measure: "Give me touch... burning touch!")

So here is Priss and the Replicants performing Konya Wa Hurricane from the series Bubblegum Crisis.

Sunday, May 13, 2018

And then you see the name McG as the director of the film and a shiver runs down your spine. Not because he directed the two Charlie’s Angels films, but because he is still going around by the name McG. Still, you’ve got a horror comedy film about a babysitter who may or may not be involved in the dark arts. Well that just sounds like a fun Sunday movie to me.

Summary:

Cole (Judah Lewis) is not your typical 12-year-old boy. He has overprotective parents, gets picked on at school and even has neighborhood bullies that make his life miserable. But he is able to make it through the day, and that might be because he still has a babysitter. Bee (Samara Weaving) is super sexy, has a keen knowledge of geek culture and she treats Cole like a peer. Cole thinks she is swell.

Until one night he sneaks downstairs to see what the babysitter does when he is supposed to be asleep. Turns out that Bee may be the leader of a cult! Joined by the wisecracking John (Andrew Bachelor), the perky Allison (Bella Thorne), the hulking Max (Robbie Arnell) and the mysterious Sonya (Hana Mae Lee), the five commit what looks like a full on blood sacrifice right in Cole’s home. Now it is up to Cole to escape the house of horrors, and enlist the help of the girl next door, Melanie (Emily Alyn Lind) to stop Bee and her minions. Because Cole is starting to think that Bee is more than just The Babysitter.

Good Points:

Combines in your face outrageous style with an over the top premise to great effect

Some excellent chemistry between Cole and Bee makes their relationship work

The entire cast in on board for style of the film

Bad Points:

Goes very over the top, getting a little too crude at times

Some of the stylistic choices may annoy some viewers

Never really gets scary, so horror fans may be disappointed

Overall:

Did I mention this was over the top? Well that is going to make or break the movie for you. The film takes a Tarantino style and ratchets it up to 11. The gore is gratuitous, there is some very crude humor thrown in that doesn’t always land. But the heart of the film Cole and Bee’s relationship is what makes it all work. The two actors really pull it off and give the movie a bit of heart at the center of all the ridiculous hijinks. The movie knows what it is and goes right for it. I had a great time with it.

Scores(out of 5)

Visuals: 4

Sound: 4

Acting: 4

Script: 4

Music: 4

Direction: 4

Entertainment: 4

Total: 4

Curious about a full review, sent me an email and I’ll make additional thoughts to this review.

Enjoying the content? Click and ad before you go and support this blog.

Sunday, May 6, 2018

It is bad enough when you are hosting a nice dinner party and one of your guests turns out to be an idiot with the manners of an insane chameleon. But it is even worse when you are the dinner guest and you happened to bring the rude idiot with you. Of course, you had hoped he would act a little less annoying than usual, but time and again he proved you wrong. Jedi are known for their patience. But this, it was just going too far. Can't really blame Qui Gon here. Caption time!

Sunday, April 29, 2018

When Guardians of the Galaxyarrived in theaters in 2014, the results were unexpected. In the lead up to the film’s release, the Marvel faithful were excited but everyone else saw what looked like Star Warsclone with a talking raccoon. What we got was something that was a lot more fun than the last crop of Star Wars prequels. A sequel was inevitable, and it had a lot to live up to.

Summary:

Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) is still calling himself the Star Lord and is still traveling with his rag tag group of heroes. These include Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax (Dave Bautista), Rocket (Bradley Cooper) and baby Groot (Vin Diesel). Now known as the Guardians of the Galaxy they are still getting in and out of trouble but these days they do it for “good causes” like protecting powerful batteries for the golden skinned Sovereign people. But nothing goes as planned and Rocket may or may not have stolen some of the batteries and well… things go wrong.

Before you know it Yondu (Michael Rooker) and Nebula (Karen Gillan) are dragged into the mess and the Guardians are facing hundreds of deadly Sovereign ships. But help arrives when a mysterious being named Ego (Kurt Russell) saves the day. He brings the Guardians to his home world and reveals his god-like powers. Ego then claims to be Peter’s father, and that he needs his son’s help for a special mission. It isn’t long before 70s music is playing, Rocket is shouting and shooting and the galaxy is in peril again.

Good Points:

Maintains the fun spirit of the previous film.

The cast does a great job balancing humor and drama

Excellent visuals and productions design

Bad Points:

The flow of the story moves in fits and starts

Looking for nonstop action, you won’t find it here

Gets a little too self aware at times

Overall:

In some ways it would be silly to expect this film to top the predecessor. We are expecting a lot from this film and it delivers on quite a bit. Lots of humor and fun for sure. But the movie feels a little too long and could have trimmed a subplot or two to make it flow a bit better. The characters are so much fun you don’t mind spending the extra time with them. Well worth checking out, especially if you enjoyed the previous film.

Scores(out of 5)

Visuals: 5

Sound: 5

Acting: 4

Script: 3

Music: 4

Direction: 4

Entertainment: 4

Total: 4

Curious about a full review, sent me an email and I’ll make additional thoughts to this review.

Enjoying the content? Click and ad before you go and support this blog.

Sunday, April 22, 2018

So there is now an official Cloverfield trilogy which is blossoming into a full-blown “series” as of this writing. So far these films all share some element of surprise in their marketing. When it comes to this film, the surprise was along the lines of “where the hell did this come from?” because I didn’t know anyone who even heard this was in the works. Springing fully formed from the head of Zeus and onto Netflix we have a sci-fi horror hybrid. But is it worth checking out?

Summary:

Earth is in trouble. Natural resources are running scarce and a new source of energy needs to be found. So the Cloverfield space station is launched. Using technology based on particle accelerators, the science team believes they can create an endless source of energy… they just need to get the damn thing to work.

We meet Ava Hamilton (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) the communications officer aboard the station. She is dealing with some personal tragedy in her life and is finding it hard to focus on her job. She will need to focus, because a freak accident causes the station to malfunction and be hurtled to a mysterious location in space. While trying to figure out what is happening the crew realizes that they have opened a dimensional door. That caused all kinds of horrifying and bizarre things to occur. This includes finding a living person inside a wall, strange emanations of magnetic fields, and eyeballs just not behaving in sockets. As the horrors mount the crew becomes certain that they actually crossed dimensions and being in an alternate reality may create a paradox… a Cloverfiled Paradox so to speak. David Oyelowo, Daniel Bruhl, Chris O’ Dowd, Zhang Ziyi and Elizabeth Debicki round out the cast.

Good Points:

Some solid acting by the cast

Some excellent visual effects and sets

Manages to build up some solid thrills and WTF moments

Bad Points:

Feels very disjointed and messy at times

The story is very, very, very familiar

Connections to the previous films in the series feels like an afterthought

Overall:

There are elements of a top-notch sci-fi thriller buried in this movie. It’s got a solid cast that does its best with a messy script. But the whole thing feels very uneven. It also is highly reminiscent of Event Horizon and similar films. Not a bad time for lazy Sunday viewing, but certainly the least of three films currently bearing the Cloverfield moniker. 10 Cloverfield Laneis easily the superior film.

Scores(out of 5)

Visuals: 4

Sound: 3

Acting: 4

Script: 2

Music: 4

Direction: 3

Entertainment: 3

Total: 3

Curious about a full review, sent me an email and I’ll make additional thoughts to this review.

Enjoying the content? Click and ad before you go and support this blog.

Sunday, April 15, 2018

If there is one thing 1950s science fiction films taught us, it is to never trust anyone coming out of a flying saucer. There are a few exceptions, like good old Klaatu from The Day the Earth Stood Still. More often than not you end up with an Invasion of the Saucermen situation.

Sometimes you get to meet cool aliens with lumpy foreheads (before Star Trek made that a thing) and unusual wildlife (larger of course and with a higher degree of intelligence). But then there is the technology, and believe me, that technology is always something to see. This Island Earth has some pretty neat looking devices including the famed Interocitor. But just what the heck is this thing? I think we need a caption for it.

Friday, April 6, 2018

It has been a while since I featured some music from the Western genre on this blog. I'm not a big fan of Western films in general. There are some good ones out there for sure, but as a whole they just don't do too much for me.

But the music is another story all together. There have been plenty of great scores for Western films. Of course Ennio Morricone leaps to mind with his scores to The Good, The Bad and the Ugly and many other spaghetti westerns. But you also have classic Hollywood Westerns featuring scores by Alfred Newman, Elmer Bernstein and of course Jerry Goldsmith.

But I'm gong for something a bit more recent. Basil Poledouris is best known for his wonderful score to Conan the Barbarian, but the composer became one of the few who kept getting pulled into scoring the few Westerns that came out in the 80s and 90s. One of my favorites from Poledouris is the score to Quigley Down Under. It has the classic Hollywood Western sound in the main theme, but Poledouris adds some banjo and ragtime rhythms to the piece that just makes it super memorable. The whole score is a lot of fun, but seriously the main theme is one of the best of the 1990s.

So enjoy the Main Title from Quigley Down Under composed by Basil Poledouris.

Featured Sections

About Me

I'm a writer who loves movies, books, video games and music. Wow, that's pretty generic eh? Been a staff writer for DVD Verdict.com and animeondvd.com. I worked at a video store for nearly 10 years. Still working on genre fiction both short and novel length.